home tonight. that's it for this "special report." fair, balanced and still unafraid. "the story" hosted by martha maccallum starts right now. >> martha: sometimes you just have to take a dip. >> bret: that's right. and >> martha: thank you, bret. good to see it in a period of breaking this evening, bill browder, once the west's biggest investor in russia, now after fighting to escape the clutches of vladimir putin, he fears that he may become part of some kind of exchange underway for 12 russian intel agents after he heard this. >> we can actually permit representatives of the united states, including the members of this very commission headed by mr. mueller, we can let them into the country and they will be present for this questioning. then we would expect that the americans would reciprocate and we can bring up mr. browder in this particular case. >> bret: and then today, this.

>> they named several americans they wanted to question they claimed were involved in bill browder's crimes in their terms. it is president trump open to that idea? >> there was some conversation about it, but there wasn't a commitment made on behalf of the united states and the president will work with his team and we will let you know if there's an announcement on that front. >> martha: good evening, everybody. i martha maccallum and this is the story. bill browder was once a successful american businessman working in russia until 2005 when he was suddenly expelled from the country. his company was seized by russian authorities and used then in a massive tax fraud scheme. he then hired russian lawyer sergei make nitschke, a name that you have heard a lot of lately to investigate what was going on. he was then thrown into a russian prison. he died there after being beaten and denied medical care. ever since then, bill browder has campaigned to punish russia

and he says his efforts have made him vladimir putin's number one for an end to me. bill browder joins us now from an undisclosed location this evening. good evening once again to you. what was your reaction when you heard vladimir putin mention her name. he spoke about that the other night. but how about what you heard at the white house today? >> i was absolutely appalled by what i heard at the white house today. what vladimir putin wants, we know he's a bad guy. we know he's coming after me because of the magnitsky act. but to have the white house press secretary say that they haven't decisively ruled it out right off the bat and they are considering this unseemly trade of me and a bunch of good american people for these russian spies is absolutely appalling and ridiculous.

>> martha: the magnitsky act was passed by congress and it put sanctions on vladimir putin, on many of his wealthiest friends in terms of what travel they could have. this has irritated him to no end and he wants it lifted and in fact that was part of the reason that natalia was in new york to try to get the magnitsky act lifted. it also has to do with some adoption rules, that's part of the larger picture of it. but they very much want that overturned and he's obviously very angry with you. i wonder if you took any comfort from what you heard later today from the state department. here's heather nauert. >> i can't answer on behalf of the white house with regard to that but what i can tell you is that the overall assertions that have come out of the russian government are absolutely absurd. the fact that they want to question 11 american citizens and the assertion that the russian government is thinking about those american citizens.

>> martha: does that make you feel any better? >> i feel better knowing -- that by itself doesn't make me feel better because the president of the united states is still "considering it." but at the end highly confident that nothing will happen, and just to dig a little deeper into this whole thing so everybody understands what's going on, the people that vladimir putin want to have interviewed by his russian secret police are mike mcfall, the former u.s. ambassador to russia, kyle parker, a senior congressional staff member who wrote the magnitsky act. bob auto, a senior official in the state department, and in addition to that, if there are three special agents of department of homeland security who have been conducting investigations into russian money laundering in new york, buying property and so, the idea that the white house, that donald trump would be considering handing these people over, and me over, to the russians is just appalling.

it's effectively treason to hand over patriotic people who have been trying to do the right thing, and they better come out quickly and walk that one back, otherwise this is truly a litmus test for the trump administration. >> martha: ambassador mcfall has said that he hopes there is immediate pushback publicly to this idea. do you think the president is very familiar with your case and really understands the whole thing? >> well apparently he spent quite a bit of time in his private meetings discussing me and my case so he shouldn't be unfamiliar with it at this point. >> martha: and the russian officials, what are you hearing about what their understanding is of what may or may not have been discussed in the closed door meeting? >> the russian government has made a very clear announcement saying here's a list of people that they want to interrogate in the united states and it consists of me and it consists

of a bunch of these people i just mentioned and they are very clear about it. and the one thing i should point out to you, the story that vladimir putin told at the helsinki summit press conference is the same story that natalia told in the trump tower meeting in june 2016 and so this has been something that putin has been sort of paddling through different mediums for a long time and has now just reached his own mouth to the heirs of the most powerful man in the free world, donald trump. >> martha: as of right now the white house says they thought it was an interesting idea and that was as far as they went with it. they made no commitment to anything. so it is a quite extraordinary story and we will follow it very closely. thanks again for being here tonight. good to see you. >> thank you. >> martha: take care in your undisclosed location. president trump heading back at

critics today saying that no one has been tougher on russia than his administration. >> we are doing very well, probably as well as anybody has ever done with russia, and there's been no president ever as tough as i have been on russia. >> martha: here now, david bossie, trump 2016 deputy campaign manager and president of citizens united into fox news contributor and austan goolsbee, former chief economic advisor to president obama and economics professor at the university of chicago. gentlemen, welcome to both of you. good to have you both here. david, let me start with you. i want to get your reaction to my discussion with bill browder. doesn't it seem odd to you that the white house has unequivocally come out and said that's never going to happen. we are not sending anyone to you and your investigators are not going to speak to these people. >> that's exactly what it sounded like heather nauert just said. she speaks for the state department. i didn't see much daylight in there. >> martha: she said she couldn't speak for the white house. i'm just curious why it has been

not so clear from the president or from the white house. why would there be any hesitation in that? >> the browder case is new for me and i can just tell you that president trump would never agree to allow americans to be questioned or god forbid sent over to russia. i think that's not even on the table. i would expect that it's not. >> martha: browder is actually a british citizen. he was an american citizen at the time. based on everything we've seen from this president who has brought hostages back from other countries, he's made that up priority. it doesn't seem to line up with the ways we've seen him working on those sorts of things and that's why because it's raising a number of questions tonight. with regard to the president's statement that he has been tougher than former presidents on the soviet union when it comes to the action, austin, what do you think about that? >> i assume he was kidding or he didn't know what he was talking about because that's obviously not true at all. >> martha: how so?

>> let's walk through the christmas list of what vladimir putin has wanted for the last ten years in the west. donald trump has actively done the bidding that vladimir putin has wanted. he's undermined nato in a very significant way. >> martha: how has he done that? he pushed them to add 35 to $40 billion in defense spending in nato. >> let's talk about, number one, but the president to say we wouldn't have come to the defense like a country with montenegro if it was too small and we didn't want to do so. that's the very core agreement of nato. >> martha: david, you are shaking your head. i'm going to go one by one here. >> the leaders of the nato countries said that he undermined it. >> martha: david do you want to weigh in on that? >> barack obama allowed the russians to metal. barack obama allowed them to invade crimea.

you can laugh. barack obama allowed the syrians to gas children. the red line that barack obama talked about was not accurate. he lied to the american people and he let putin do whatever he wanted. those are the facts. >> martha: hold on, austin. >> he went to a summit in which he is talking about potentially extraditing the u.s., the former u.s. ambassador. to russia. >> it's not true. >> martha: hold on, guys. austin. austin, just take a breath for one second. in terms of actual facts on the ground and what we have seen happen, this president gave legal aid to the ukraine. president obama sent them mr es. you can talk in broad terms about being dissatisfied with the attitude that you saw in

helsinki and i think he would find a lot of people that would agree with that, but we have to deal in the actual facts on the ground. president obama said that he would consider easing up on the missile shield. can you imagine how that felt to the eastern european countries when they heard that? and in fact, the missile shield is still in the works and plan to be done by 2020 under this president. >> let's walk through specifically, if you'd like to. the u.s. congress has sanctions on russia to punish them for their behavior. the trump administration has actively not enforced the sanctions and to evict russian diplomats and then turned around that said they would allow the russians to replace those diplomats with other diplomats. when you are saying that the president is being the toughest president on russia, it's obviously not true. you don't have to make claims

that are completely over-the-top false. >> martha: i'm literally going by the facts. the money strength, the strengthening of nato, the increase in aid to ukraine. >> when you say strength in nato, with the leaders of our nato allies universally agreed that he undermined nato. >> martha: david, i want to give the final thought here. go ahead. >> trump derangement syndrome is a real thing. we see this now. we see brendan, the obama cia director who was responsible for allowing the meddling in the syrian gassing of children, this guy who voted for a communist now we find out. we have problems that president trump inherited that he is trying to fix. the obama administration and their ilk are doing everything they can to undermine him. they lie, they will cheat, they will steal. they want to basically eliminate the election of november of

2016. that's all they think about, that's all they can do. >> martha: thanks, good debate. good to have you both here tonight. still to come, mandalay bay has been criticized for allowing stephen paddock to load an enormous amount of firepower into his room there. before unleashing it on hundreds of innocent people below, but now mandalay bay is suing the victim, a heated debate coming up tonight. plus, prosecutors say that she offered sex in return for a job here in the united states and then proceeded to infiltrate g.o.p. circles. what we are now learning tonight about the woman known as maria butina. do you think that's her real name? michael is joining me with some of what he has done and he's been writing about are actually for a long time. he's up next. ♪ ♪

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and she would be out of their hands. so the prosecutors say that this 29-year-old allegedly offered to have sex with an unnamed individual in return for a job in the united states and that she gained access to an extensive network of u.s. persons to influence political activities in the united states by living with and at one point, and none of the people in this picture are implicated in this, so let's take them off the camera, there's a suggestion that she had a relationship with an individual and may have moved in with someone in order to gain access as well. here is jack barsky, former kgb agent on "the story" last night when he asked -- when i asked him if he believes she is a russian spy. >> is she a spy, what we would call this by? >> i would think so, i'll, i'll be at most likely an amateur bird calling her an amateur, i also have to compliment her because she got a lot further than i, as a trained professional guy. she made contact with a whole lot of people that are and would

be of interest to russia. >> martha: .of course is what spies try to do. remember anna chapman? who even kind of looks a little bit like maria butina and the ring of russian spies who were caught back in 2010. their story was the basis for the series "the americans." coauthor of russian roulette, michael, welcome back to the program. if you wrote about maria butina in your book. were you surprised to hear that she had been arrested? >> not really. maria bettina is how it's pronounced. >> martha: thank you. >> she has been on my radar screen and a number of others for quite some time. during the 2016 campaign she kept showing up at various events. she was photographed with governor walker at an nra event shortly after he announced. and also, and we do write about this in russian roulette, just a

few weeks after donald trump declared his candidacy for president, she showed up at an event he was speaking at in las vegas. trump called on her during a q&a session she asked about -- >> martha: we have that. we can show that, let's play that. >> sure. >> do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging of both economies? >> i believe i would get along very nicely with putin, okay? and i mean where we have the strength. i don't think you would need the sanctions. i think that we would get along very, very well. >> martha: she was clearly doing her job. she was getting her which are taken with whoever she could. >> right. and russia sanctions was hardly at the forefront of the american political dialogue at that moment. that's not what republican candidates were talking much about, but she got trump on the record saying he would do away with sanctions.

>> martha: president obama wasn't imposing sanctions at that point, right? >> he had already imposed sanctions. trump saying if you elect me you wouldn't need the sanctions. >> martha: let's talk a little bit about the back channels she was trying to establish and whether or not from your reporting she was able to really get anywhere with that. part of the investigation is whether or not there was funneling of money. in my mind, she is sort of like the human expression of a bot or a tweet or all the other efforts that they made. she is a much more traditional expression of that. in fact, over the last decade they have arrested 20 spies who have been doing exactly what she was trying to do. >> right. she was -- as we write in the book, she surprised a lot of people because she kept showing up at nra conventions, at cpac conferences, at national prayer breakfasts and there were a number of people who kept

wondering why is this woman always here? what is she after? is a republican lobbyist who she was sort of coming onto and this lobbyist was wondering what's going on here? why is this russian woman trying to befriend me in being so solicitous? >> martha: i wonder why! i wonder what she might possibly want! >> there's a serious part to the story, and out as her handler, her boss, and that's that guy alexander. he is a russian central banker, deputy governor. a high-level official in putin's party. and an accused money launderer. the spanish national police had wiretaps on him talking to the head of a russian organized crime gang leader in spain in which the leader is talking about him as el padrino. he's the real target. >> martha: he's the guy in the

picture. good to see you. new jersey senator bob menendez has been plagued by scandal and now his new jersey senate race is looking like it could actually become a toss-up. and 58 concertgoers massacred. hundreds of people injured and now mandalay bay is turning the tables on the last vegas victim. one of the survivors is up next. >> they have no interest whatsoever in the victims. their number one and only priority is their money. ♪ i tend to play the tough guy. but i wasn't tough enough to quit on my own. not until i tried chantix. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. it reduced my urge to smoke to the point that i could stop. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix,

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>> martha: 58 people were murdered and more than 500 were injured in the las vegas massacre last october and now more than 1,000 survivors of the deadliest shooting in american history are being sued by mgm resorts. the strange twist is sparking a major backlash. is this heartless or practical, or maybe both? jonathan hunt is live in our west coast newsroom with the story. hi, jonathan. >> it certainly seems odd on the face of it that the company would sue victims but it's all

about mgm protecting itself from what could potentially be a series of devastating financial claims. the company says it has "no liability of any kind to defendants." those defendants being some of the hundreds of people who were shot, wounded and traumatized that terrible night when a gunman opened fire from the mandalay bay. 2002 2002 federal act that gives liability protection to any company that uses "antiterrorism technology or services that can "help prevent and respond to mass violence." mgm says it's protected from liability because it used a security company certified by the department of homeland security and in a statement, mgm added "years of drawn out litigation and hearings are not in the best interest of victims, the community and those still healing. the act gm is relying on is in

the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. the fbi has not called the vega shootings an act of terrorism and in fact still hasn't found a motive behind the massacre. victims and their lawyers are outraged. >> this is the most reprehensible conduct by a defendant under circumstances like this i've ever witnessed in more than 30 years. >> and they argue that as stephen paddock brought his huge arsenal of weapons into the mandalay bay, mgm should have seen the warning signs and should not be protected legally by that 2002 federal safety act. >> it wasn't meant to provide immunity for a hotel casino who had woefully inefficient security process that all the bells and whistles that were going off that they didn't catch. >> the courts will decide the legal issues. the court of public opinion seems to have rolled already

against mgm. >> martha: thank you very much, jonathan. brian claypool, an attorney who was there the night of the massacre, he represents more than 75 of the survivors and a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, welcome, both of you. mark, you were there. we talked shortly after that night about how horrific it was for you. how does mgm turn lawsuits against these victims and get away with it? >> thanks for having me back. we talked right after the shooting and i will tell you that the announcement of these lawsuits against the victims of the vega shooting has re-victimized and re-traumatized everybody that was part of that shooting, including myself. my question to mgm is how deep into the swamp do they want to go by suing victims? how low do they want to kick the victims? in my opinion, both as a victim

of the shooting and a lawyer. i'm cocounseling with robert on these cases. this is a bullying tactic and an intimidation tactic to dissuade or discourage these victims from filing this lawsuit, plain and simple. they didn't have to do this. >> martha: i can understand if mgm thinks that they can win's suit, but suing the victims? what are they suing them for? >> a p.r. nightmare. i will not defend them on p.r. grounds at all. my heart goes out to the victims and i can understand why brian and the others are feeling angry. however, brian is a tremendous trial lawyer, he knows that your job when defending someone is to do everything you possibly can to win and in this particular case they cite a statute that seems to be created for this very scenario. he didn't hire justin bieber's bodyguards or a couple of hells angels. they hired a company that was

certified the department of homeland security in the exact acts that are protected underneath the statute. i'm not sure how a judge doesn't grant this. >> martha: let me ask you this. after this horrific night we talked about the security that other casinos have in place in las vegas and the wind casino as i remember had much tougher security in terms of what you can bring into those rooms and how long you can let no one enter your room for days and days. so if you can prove -- can you prove that they were negligent because other resorts have handled it much better? >> you can do that and the way we are going to do it also is, for example, a couple weeks ago there was evidence of three years ago, convicted felon is in a hotel room at the mandalay bay with mass weapons. we can use prior reports of crime at all the mgm casinos and

try to get an evidence of other crime occurring on the property from other casinos to prove negligence, but one thing i want to respond to mark with is i don't think -- this is not a slam dunk the spirit of this 2002 law was to prevent terrorism. the definition of terrorism is violence for a political gain. this had nothing to do with terrorism and the last one i want to make is -- >> that's not accurate. even if the definition of terrorism -- >> martha: mark, go ahead. >> even the definition of terrorism in this scenario is any unlawful act, and that's what this was, inside the united states, which it was, that causes mass destruction, injury or other loss. it seems to fit exactly the definition, as much as i feel for you and your client legally the judge will not consider the motion sympathy. >> martha: we got to leave it

there. we will pick it up. we will stay on it. good to see you both tonight, thank you very much. coming up, more democrats run cities like chicago pushing some usual liberal policies bordering on socialism like guaranteed income for all. so where are they headed? jonah goldberg and president obama's return to the spotlight ahead. plus, cleared of corruption and back on the campaign trail, but this time new jersey senator bob menendez may have some competition on his hands. his challenger is republican bob and he joins me next. >> bob menendez chose a life in politics serving his donors, getting indicted. bob human chose a life of service. he's the better bob for senate. all while creating a masterpiece made of tea leaves?

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>> to those who were digging my political grave so that they could jump into my seat, i know who you are and i won't forget you. >> martha: remember that? less than four months until the 2018 midterms, i think it's about 100 days and the new jersey senate races in a statistical dead heat according to a local pole and it's starting to get some attention because there's a real chance that the traditionally safe democratic seed could possibly for the first time since 1972 possibly go read. you've got to term senator bob menendez who was cleared this year of corruption charges. basically the jury in both cases, both trials did not reach a decision, they deadlocked. it's a tight race with bob hugin, a former drug company executive. bob is here live in just a moment but first, chris stirewalt, fox news politics editor for more on this race. if this could potentially get interesting. it doesn't usually happen in new jersey. >> new jersey politics are interesting. >> martha: that's for sure. >> but usually not in good ways.

here's the thing, it's a tough year for republicans in new jersey and in a lot of places and a lot of blue states and let's be honest from the start, this is a long shot. this is a hard one, but you have in mr. hugin what republicans love to see. if they have a lot of places where they are spending money to try to gain seats in the senate. this is one where you have a person who has money of his own and has a donor base that he can call on to help them out and he can become instantly viable essentially in this race. menendez is badly damaged. he was not really cleared-cleared in the sense that prosecutors eventually said we are dropping what we're doing. they didn't say we think he's peachy keen. what they said was we can't get there from here and we give up. and that's going to hang over him and also resentment inside his party toward him for the way he did this. it would have been much better for him for democrats to have stepped aside and let somebody without the baggage run. he's forcing it and now there is some division there.

>> martha: indeed there is. so what's the vulnerability for bob hugin? >> he is a republican, it is new jersey. if the brand in new jersey right now for republican is bad so he has to be a different kind of republican to fit in in new jersey, but it has worked in the past. chris christie, et cetera. so things are possible and we are definitely watching this race in a way that we normally wouldn't. >> martha: thank you my friend, good to see her tonight. we invited incumbent democratic senator bob menendez to join us tonight. he had a prior engagement and that invitation is open. joining me now is bob hugin, republican candidate for u.s. senate in new jersey and former ceo of celgene pharmaceuticals. good to see you, good to have you here tonight. let's take a look at -- we looked in the tease at your ad against bob menendez. but let's look at what he is running against you. >> when the cause is just, we don't give in. when the odds are long, we don't give up. >> always made us proud. always. >> we cannot let the dark cloud

cast by the president define us as a country. >> martha: doesn't mention you a whole lot in there. but what you make of the race you are up against? >> i think long shot is the wrong characterization. the two most recent polls are within the margin of error. it's a dead heat right now. the people of new jersey are realizing they have a real choice this year. >> martha: you are a former marine. you were the first to go to college and your family. i think a lot of people look at you and say he's a wealthy man, very successful. you put $15 million of your own money into this race so i can imagine in a debate environment, because i moderate a lot of debates, that that's how he's going to go at you, that you are the rich guy and you are finding your own campaign, kind of like donald trump. >> as you said, i lived the american dream. i was born in jersey city, raised in union city. first of my family to go to college. serve the marine corps, served my country. a struggling company, six weeks of cash (and now leading one of

the companies fighting cancer. we will make a difference. let's be clear, in washington you never see bipartisanship. senate ethics committee, democrats and republicans, senator menendez violated the law, abused the power of his office, disgraced the senate, it's time for change. >> martha: so how do you convince democratic voters in new jersey, because there are more of them than there are republicans, that they should take a chance on you, and will you ask president trump to campaign with you? >> first of all, the people of new jersey are speaking. i go to all over. if they realize that not only has he morally offended them and embarrass them, he's been washington for 25 years, 16 years with a democratic president in new jersey is dead last. we get the least back from any state in the country of the percentage of what we send and it's headed in the wrong direction. its failed leadership. we are going to put new jersey first. >> martha: you didn't answer my question. do you want tromped to campaign

with you? >> i want everybody to come and support me as long as it's about new jersey and the issues we are fighting for. >> martha: what about chris christie, would you like him to campaign with you? >> again, i want anybody who believes in the values that i have from new jersey. i'm listening. it's clear what they want. they want a more affordable state. they need to be supported better in trenton and in washington. >> martha: i live in new jersey, i think maybe our viewers are aware of. you've got a lot of people who want to leave the state. they are getting taxed out of the state. a lot of businesses. i would imagine that that's one of the areas you are going to want to drive home. >> yes. it's a shame. you want to be able to have your children -- i'm lucky, i have three kids. we raised our kids in new jersey. my daughter works at giovanni yogurt here in new york. both my sons are in the marine corps. i want them to be able to come back to new jersey but it's so unaffordable now people are planning their exit. we got to change. we've got to see the light at the end of the tunnel and say we are going to have trenton and washington focus on making new jersey affordable again.

>> martha: thank you very much. we will be watching. interesting to meet you. coming up next. >> i am not being alarmist, i am simply stating the facts. look around. strongman politics are assented. >> martha: so is that true? are those the facts? jonah goldberg says the rebirth of populism and nationalism is destroying american democracy. he's always so cheery and he joins me next. ♪ is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies try new one a day with nature's medley.

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>> look around. strongman politics are ascendant suddenly. whereby elections in some pretense of democracy are maintained, the form of it but those in power seek to undermine every institution or norm that gives democracy meaning. >> martha: that was president obama stepping back into the spotlight this week and taking some shots, without saying his name, at president trump, suggesting that strongman politics, as you heard him say they are, are on the rise and perhaps some of our democratic freedoms are at stake. joining me now, jonah goldberg. fox news contributor and author

of the new book "suicide of the west." who better to talk to about democracy and the future? good to see you tonight. what about this argument that strongman are ascendant? >> i think you're probably right that barack obama was, as the kids say, sub tweeting donald trump a little bit. people were supposed to take away that association. but it is worth pointing out that strongman politics is ascendant in large parts of the globe. there are lots of countries that are looking at the putin model, the chinese model. viktor orban in hungary has talked about how liberal democratic capitalism has may be run its course. in mexico they just elected a big populist demagogue guy. we look at what happened in venezuela, which should be a cautionary tale. the rhetoric about democracy and -- is fading in many parts of the world these days and i do think that you can make the

argument that some of that is happening in the united states too. i don't think that donald trump is a strongman. i do think he likes a lot of strong men, or says nice things about them, but that's a little different thing than saying donald trump is a strongman. >> martha: he talked about the rise of democracy, actually, and how the situation for most people has become better in the world in recent decades. he says now you got -- he says when he was a kid you had about 60 democracies. now you have 100 and that this notion that the world is becoming a less great place to live is just simply not true when you look at the economies around the globe. democracy is going around the globe. the decline in disease around the globe. that it actually is a much more optimistic picture than president obama wants to paint. >> i agree with that and he makes a very similar argument to one of the ones that i make in my book. in terms of human prosperity, this is the greatest moment to be alive in all of human

history. we actually, right now in this moment are living in the greatest moment of poverty alleviation in the history of humanity. but at the same time, we don't teach people to be grateful for this. we don't teach people to be thankful for this. instead, we get on the left and on certain parts of the right, the opposite of gratitude, which is resentment and entitlement. as ronald reagan said, tear and he is never more than one generation away. we don't inherit it in our blood, it's got to be fought for and taught in every generation and we are not doing a great job of that. >> martha: i thought it was interesting when president obama was talking about strongman and i think about another way of looking at that is that a strongman, some might make the argument, conservatives might make the argument, that the strongman is the government and that the government has grown and grown and grown and encroached on people's freedoms. we have encouraged more people to go into food stamps. now we are talking about guaranteed income in chicago. maybe it's not embodied in one human being, but that the

government is a fearful strongman for many people. >> i agree with that entirely. this is one of the ironies when you hear from people on the sort of democratic left in america, they are constantly saying donald trump is a strongman, what we need is socialism, which is basically getting millions of bureaucrats strongman power over their lives. i do think one of the best argument for donald trump's election was the idea that the government establishment, the globalist, whatever you want to call it, was having too much power over our lives and we needed someone to come in at smash all that up. the things that donald trump is doing to smash a lot of that stuff up i support a great deal. >> martha: when you look at the rise of kim jong un, when you look at what happened with china over the course of the obama years, the expansion into the south china seas, the huge expansion of -- their robbing of our intellectual property geared all of that. putin moving into crimea, into ukraine. all of that happened on president obama's watch. it's difficult to argue that the

strongman has become more active since he left. >> i think one of the reasons why a lot of those things happen was in part because barack obama had a theory about how the world works that was in direct defiance of how the world actually works, so he showed weakness to strongman around the world and strongman did what strongman do. >> martha: you are a strongman, but in a different way. thanks for being here. still ahead tonight, a sneak peek about what the new air force one could look like, and we have a huge debate over whether or not it should be changed. stickby around, we will be right back. advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vision. boost optimum. be up for life. with proskin technology intimates overnight for two times faster absorption so you can have worry free nights,

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i don't like this particular version it looks like a hockey helmet to me. here's what they said on twitte twitter. i think it should have been red, white, and blue to begin with. and rick snyder says it must be left as it is, the original iconic colors that symbol is highly recognizable around the world. here's tonight's quote, on the last flight for air force one. >> this plane number 27,000 bore the name of air force one for for 444 missions, today it carried a president for the last time. and soon it will be taking its last flight. it will carry no more presidents but it will carry forever the spirit of american democracy. >> martha: they should leave it the way it does but i don't

think the president will listen to me. that is our story for tonight. tucker carlson is coming up next live from washington, d.c. ♪ >> tucker: good evening, welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." if last night we played our interview with president trump from helsinki, part of it has made headlines. people are upset about it it has nothing to do with vladimir putin or mother russia, it has to do with the nation of montenegro which is smaller than the state of connecticut. it has fewer residents than the district of columbia, it's a relatively poor place. it has no critical national resources and limited strategic significance. few americans could name its capital or its president. apparently it's a nice place but those are the facts about montenegro. from an a